As technology and AI continue to evolve at a rapid pace, mission-driven organizations, from nonprofits to public sector bodies, are grappling with how best to harness these tools to serve their communities and advance their goals. In our latest expert-led series, we explore the shifting landscape of governance and service delivery through the lens of innovation.

We also explore a pressing dilemma facing today’s leaders: Are you using AI enough? Or are you using it in the wrong ways? These questions are no longer hypothetical; they’re at the heart of strategic conversations happening across boardrooms and leadership teams in the public and nonprofit sectors.

As AI becomes more embedded in decision-making, service design and operational efficiency, we asked experts to share their insights and tips on technology and AI and the future of governance for nonprofit and public-facing boards. Whether you serve on or with a city council, school board or mission-driven organization, you’ll find a new perspective to determine the next steps.

Experts on how technology and AI are shaping mission-driven governance

1. Be thoughtful with AI adoption

Patrick Downes, Managing Partner, Governance Ireland: “Build a governance culture that learns as fast as the world changes. That means embracing continuous board education, routinely reassessing structures and processes against their mission and embedding future-scanning into the agenda. Any technology, including AI, will only be as effective as a board’s willingness to ask better questions and act on uncomfortable answers. Future-proofing is less about predicting the exact challenges ahead, and more about creating a governance system resilient enough to adapt — anchored in your purpose, but agile in your methods. Easier said than done!”

Darian Rodriguez Heyman, speaker, consultant and bestselling author, Helping People Help: “You are being irresponsible if you’re not giving AI a good look — or if you’re using it without thoughtfulness and intentionality. We’re not here to automate ourselves and outsource the work to the robots. We’re here to employ them to unlock efficiencies and serve more people in the community. Every organization should spend at least an hour or two starting the conversation about what AI means to them and put some policies on paper.”

Jay Worona, Partner at Jaspan Schlesinger and Narendran, and former Deputy Executive Director and General Counsel, New York State School Boards Association: “If it’s going to help (board members) do their jobs, phenomenal. If it’s going to do their jobs for them, that’s really problematic.”

Tip: There are more than two approaches to AI adoption, and your team wants to land somewhere between “no holds barred” and dragging your feet. AI is already integrated into platforms like CRMs, fundraising tools and more, so it’s more than likely that your team, staff and other stakeholders are already using it. If you haven’t had a conversation about using AI for strategic work such as data analysis, potential administrative time savings and ethical and privacy implications, schedule that meeting now.

2. Preserve and respect human contributions

Andrea Messina, CEO, Florida School Boards Association: “While AI will assist in streamlining workflows and so many other things, the human insight provided by members of public-facing boards will not and should not ever be replaced. Boards will actually be able to offload work that can be determined by algorithms and, in its place, focus on important discussions and collaborations with those whom they represent.”

Steve Schroeder, Director of Administration & Analysis, Association of Wisconsin School Administrators, and former Board President and Governance Officer, Sun Prairie School Board: “While AI will change many facets of our lives, at the heart of governance are relationships. Relationships cannot be replaced by AI. Future-proofing governance relies on human interaction: trust, respect, vulnerability and accountability. Organizations, and especially their leaders, need to spend more time cultivating relationships. Leadership, relationships and governance are interconnected and they are at the heart of any organization's success.”

Jay Worona, Partner at Jaspan Schlesinger and Narendran, and former Deputy Executive Director and General Counsel, New York State School Boards Association: “We shouldn’t be doing anything in a school board role that would preclude the public from understanding in a transparent way how our decisions are brought about.”

Tip: As a tool, AI can improve efficiencies and make the board’s or council’s work more powerful through predictive analytics, but it doesn’t take the place of intuition, experience and human insight that people bring to these roles. As your team discusses integrating AI into your work, set aside time to articulate how humans will continue to contribute through relationship building, quality control and other factors that support AI use.

3. Boards can shift from reactive to strategic work

Patrick Downes, Managing Partner, Governance Ireland: “The next decade will see AI move beyond being a back-office efficiency tool to becoming a potentially proactive ethical compass for nonprofit boards. The way things are headed, I sense that AI will not only analyze compliance and performance data in real time but also flag ethical dilemmas before they occur — surfacing unintended consequences of decisions and their impacts, potential mission drift risks and stakeholder sentiment shifts. In other words, AI may evolve into a ‘governance early-warning system’ that augments trustees’ ability to make values-aligned, timely decisions. This won’t replace our judgement — nor should it — but it should sharpen it, freeing boards to focus more on stewardship of mission rather than firefighting avoidable crises.”

James Page, Chief Information Officer, New York State School Boards Association: “Advanced technology like AI can help school boards move from being reactive to becoming more strategic. Boards can look forward, predicting enrollment shifts, modeling financial impacts or even seeing early signs of equity gaps.”

Nicolette Grams, Partner, Conscient Strategies: “Nonprofit boards today are navigating an interesting convergence: the disruption of AI and technology alongside economic instability reshaping traditional funding sources. In this environment, boards have an opportunity to lean into AI with a combination of disciplined risk management and creative strategy. In times of instability, the board’s guidance on responsible technology use can turn disruption into new ways of operating and lasting impact."

Tip: AI’s ability to dig deep into data and return useful insights is unparalleled. Teams should prioritize discussing the big questions that can help make their work focused. For city councils or schools, this may mean quick access to analytics on changing demographics, resident sentiment or relocation trends; for a mission-driven organization, it may be getting a data-driven view of fundraising trends in the years ahead. The strongest board or council is one that can spend more time on effective planning for their communities.

4. AI will reduce administrative workload

James Page, CIO, New York State School Boards Association: “AI can take a lot of the administrative load off of boards, automating things like policy comparisons, agenda prep or digging through hundreds of pages of documents.”

Amy Allen, Superintendent, Lebanon School District: “What used to take me half a day to build an agenda now takes minutes. It streamlined our processes 100 percent.”

Dottie Schindlinger, Executive Director, Diligent Institute and Founding Team Member, BoardEffect: “Technology is critical because very rarely in a nonprofit or mission-driven organization do you have a full-time governance professional. In the vast majority of nonprofits or public sector organizations, the person who's managing board business is someone who's got six other full-time jobs already. So, technology like BoardEffect or Diligent Community can help replace part of their job, take away that extra time they are spending (that they never really had in the first place!). The built-in AI-supported features, templates and automated processes that can be used to save that precious time are also going to help the organization have better governance. As well as being a board engagement platform, it's also a platform for governance best practice as it actually can reinforce best practice and governance both at the staff level and the board level.”

Tip: Helping speed administrative tasks is one way AI has significant potential. Whether using built-in AI tools to build agenda and generate meeting minutes, create automated dashboards for board oversight, handle follow-ups with the board or council and more, administrators can use these technologies to reclaim their time for other work.

5. AI will help board work — and change how work is done

Dr. Froswa’ Brooker-Drew, President, Soulstice Consultancy: “My prediction is that board governance is going to be called into question. As the landscape changes, boards will need to reexamine the way they work.”

James Page, Chief Information Officer, New York State School Boards Association: “Boards need to embrace learning, stay focused on students and view AI not as a threat, but as a tool to advance equity, transparency and opportunity.”

Ellen Glasgow, General Manager, Mission Driven Organizations, Diligent: “The next wave of board members are demanding or requiring some level of technology to make serving on the board more efficient.”

Amy Allen, Superintendent, Lebanon School District: “Everyone is getting information in real time. It’s really nice because, before, I’d share the agenda in a Google Doc. Now they just have access to everything they need.”

Diarmaid Ó Corrbuí, CEO, Carmichael: “Nonprofit boards can be hampered by poor-quality and incomplete board papers. The effective deployment of AI tools has the potential to be transformative in how the information for the board is produced, presented and utilized by the board in assessing options, evaluating risks and making decisions. While these tools will greatly enhance the decision-making process, the duty of board members to act with reasonable care, skill and diligence remains.”

Dottie Schindlinger, Executive Director, Diligent Institute and Founding Team Member, BoardEffect: “Boards that talk more about risk tend to be more engaged. If you do a better job of understanding where the risk is, you also do a better job of understanding where the opportunity is.”

Tip: An effective board or council member is one who is going to be flexible in learning about and adopting these new technologies. From small workflow changes to larger strategic thinking, every aspect of the team’s work will shift as we discover how to use — and not use — AI to support the communities and missions. Build AI-related topics into every aspect of training for the team.

6. Learn how organizations are already using AI and tech

Darian Rodriguez Heyman, speaker, consultant and bestselling author, Helping People Help: “AI can help with board member recruitment and selection. It can help create evaluation rubrics, orientation packets and even read interview transcripts to identify top candidates.”

Ellen Glasgow, General Manager, Mission Driven Organizations, Diligent: “These tools allow for centralized access to important information and help with knowledge transfer, with information being in a secure location in case of board member turnover. When new board members come in, they can immediately have access to historical information to set them up for success.”

Amy Allen, Superintendent, Lebanon School District: “The policy-tracking piece in Diligent Community is so good. You can see the history of these policies and what changes were made. It’s super helpful and transparent.”

Tip: Technology and AI are already solving problems for boards and councils, and that “a-ha!” moment for your team could come at any time. Start talking to your fellow organizations, networks and vendors about possibilities you have yet to unlock.

Read our other expert-led articles:

Using your board management software to support board governance and oversight

Your board management software can help speed and simplify the discussions and work around technology discovery, implementation and oversight. Its value as a centralized location for teamwork, with workflow tracking, simplified meeting management and a single source of truth for documents, makes it a must-have for both public and mission-driven leadership teams.

Diligent has integrated AI thoughtfully into our board management solutions. For public sector governance, Diligent Community can provide a central point to share information and policy discussions on new technologies, including public transparency websites that ensure local governments maintain a dialogue with their communities. With AI-supported minutes that leverages the power of closed captions from livestreamed meetings to help with meeting minutes, clerks and administrators save time while ensuring accurate, compliant documentation.

For nonprofit and volunteer boards, BoardEffect provides a central hub for managing board meetings, storing and organizing key documents, and collaborating on strategic plans that advance your mission. With built-in AI capabilities — like transforming lengthy board books into clear insights, finding answers across materials in seconds, and instantly creating meeting minutes — BoardEffect helps boards save time, stay focused and make smarter decisions. The result: smoother meetings, a more engaged board and stronger governance.

Diligent continues to invest in our technology and purpose-built AI to help our customers work more efficiently, effectively and meaningfully. Reach out to us to find out how we can help your mission-driven organization today.

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